Mālama Honua: ʻOhana Hōkūleʻa, Episode 2

“You’re looking at a voyage that would take Hōkūleʻa from Hawaiʻi for three years. You’d be sailing for at least 45,000 nautical miles. It would be by far the most dangerous thing we would ever consider doing as a voyaging family. The risks are huge. But on the other side, the possibilities are enormous…We’re not going to change the world; we’re going to build a network of people around the Earth who are going to change it. And our job is to help them be successful.”

– Nainoa Thompson

Episode 2

It had been 19 years since Hōkūle’a last made the 2500-mile journey from Hawaiʻi to Tahiti and for the first time ever there were seven apprentice navigators on-board, all younger than the canoe herself, most of whom have never sailed the deep sea. Join us for the second episode in our four-part series as these young navigators battle to overcome fatigue, the elements and their own anxieties to pull Tahiti from the sea. Following in the wake of their ancestors, these crews venture out to reconnect with people and place and confirm that these initial Polynesia legs of the journey are about bringing together Hōkūleʻa’s ʻOhana Waʻa to support this mission of Mālama Honua.

About the Series

Nearly 40 years ago, the founders of the Polynesian Voyaging Society dreamed of rebuilding a double-hulled canoe similar to those of our ancestors. What began as an effort to disprove critics who doubted Polynesians’ ability to sail purposefully and settle their vast nation unaided by navigational instruments has grown into a cultural reawakening, a new generation of leaders, and a living commitment to sustainability.

Hōkūleʻa originally sailed to rediscover and then to reconnect. Now she’s circling the globe carrying a message of Mālama Honua, or caring for Our Island Earth, as we struggle with the degradation of our land and oceans with the firm belief that our ancient wisdom will inspire contemporary solutions.

Join in this movement as we sail through the past, and venture into new waters of relationships and change!